EECREATIVE SCIENCE. 



51 



fliea are caught and put in for liim, but lie 

 will never touch, a dead one, and, like a toad, 

 will only take them when he sees them move, 

 and then it is accomplished instantaneously. 

 When not hungry, he allows any poor winged 

 captive that may be wandering about, " wait- 

 ing to be eaten," to walk over him and tickle 

 his nose to any extent — he takes no notice, 

 and, without moving a limb, goes on with his 

 palpitation, which is the only sign given that 

 he is stdl alive. This curious throbbing 

 action of the gullet denotes the activity of 

 the respiration in these frogs. But they 

 breathe through the skin over the whole sur- 

 face of the body as well, and hence, if kept 

 immersed in water, with no means of escape, 

 soon perish by asphyxia. 



Last autumn I followed the advice given 

 by Mr. Thompson in his " Note Book of a 

 Naturalist," and saved for my pet some dead 

 flies for winter food. Mr. Thompson says 

 he kept one in a vase for six years, and in 

 the winter fed it with dead flies, moistened 

 with warm water, " which it took freely from 

 the fingers." But my specimen would not 

 take them during the winter, though I re- 

 peatedly presented them, and sometimes 

 gave them a tremulous motion, with my 

 fingers, in [hopes he would imagine the 

 fly to be alive. But the attempt was as un- 

 necessary as it was futile. From November 

 till March he ate nothing at aU, and after 

 the first fly had been caught and given him 

 he became as active as ever. Like most 

 other reptiles, the more complete their hy- 

 bernation, the more certain are we of pre- 

 serving them in health. When my bees 

 began killing the drones last year, I gave my 

 pet. a handful of the helpless creatures, and 

 he devoured them wholesale as long as they 

 had any amount of activity. The drowned 

 drones had, of course, to be cleared out 

 quickly, or the vase would have looked most 

 unsightly. 



To the loss of the two specimens I attri- 

 bute the fact that I have never yet heard the 



music of this frog, which is said to be most 

 discordant, and by no means deficient in 

 volume. Mine has been a perfect mute ; but 

 I apprehend that when several are kept in 

 company, the social feeling finds utterance, 

 but they have too much sense to croak when 

 there are no companions to join in chorus. 

 Should I ever be so fortunate as to meet 

 with a benefactor equally liberal with the 

 one to whom I am already indebted, I shall 

 expect to make acquaintance with many in- 

 teresting points in the history of this pretty 

 Eana, which, like the music, need companion- 

 ship for their development. I know of several 

 collections of them, but the parties are not 

 so well stocked that I would venture to ask 

 for gifts. 



Shielet Hibbeed. 



DEATH AMONG THE GOLD-EISH. 



Wheeevee you meet with folks who keep 

 gold-fishes in the old-fashioned glass globes, 

 you will be sure to hear the melancholy com- 

 plaint that they will die in spite of every 

 care taken to preserve them. The water ia 

 changed most regularly, the glass kept beau- 

 tifully clean, the vessel shaded from the sun- 

 shine ; yet, alas ! alas ! death is always busy 

 amongst them. Is it internal disease ? Is it 

 external fungi P No ; the cause is starvation. 

 Every other pet is expected to eat, but these 

 gold-carp are expected to subsist on — nothing! 

 " But don't they eat the animalculaj P " Non- 

 sense ! Give them a few small earth-worms, 

 or anglers' gentles, twice a week, and to pre- 

 vent the necessity of frequently changing the 

 water, throw in a handful of Anacharis 

 (water-weed) ; and, instead of floating in suc- 

 cession "on their watery bier," they wUl get 

 plump and healthy, and grow as rapidly as 

 in their native waters. Some of our gold- 

 fishes have been in our possession seven 

 years, and have increased in size three times 

 what they were originally. H. 



